Thanks to Emilien Dupuis from Prestige Motor Racing--a company specialised in various driving experiences in supercars--Delano had the opportunity to check out the Porsche 918 Spyder, which might be the best car in the world right now. And here’s why.
As was the Porsche 959 in the eighties, the 918 is pure technological showcase. Everything on this car is basically here to show what can be expected on future Porsches in the coming years. And I’m afraid for the petrol heads around here that their next German sports cars will be… green.
“Oh no,” some of you old school fanatics might say. But it has gone green in a very clever way, harnessing the power of electricity partly to help the fuel consumption figures but mostly to increase the level of performances drastically.
Sure, the 6.8 kWh lithium-ion battery pack delivers an all-electric theoretical range of 30 km--with emissions as low as 72 g of CO2--which might be practical if you want to leave in the morning quietly without waking up the neighbours. And if you have a look at the fuel consumption, the engineers say that the 918 could be as frugal as 3.1 liters per 100 km. But do not be fooled. Here, electricity was used to bend every single law of physics.
The numbers just boggle the mind. This plug-in hybrid supercar is powered by a naturally aspirated 4.6-litre V8 engine (the red line starts at 9150 rpm and this engine was derived from the LMP2 Spyder RS), developing 616 PS but also two electric motors delivering an additional 283 PS, giving a combined output of 899 PS and 800 Nm of torque.
Top speed? 340 km/h. Accelerations: 0 to 100 km/h in 2.6 seconds, to 200 km/h in 7.3 seconds and to 300 km/h in 20.9 seconds. In September 2013, a 918 (fitted with the optional Weissach Package) set a Nürburgring lap time of 6 minutes 57 seconds to cover the 20.6 km of the “Green Hell”.
Price? When new, it was around €800,000. Since the limited production ended in 2015 and the 918 examples have been sold, prices have shot passed well over the million-euro mark nowadays.
On the outside, it doesn’t show off. You can obviously sense that it is something special, but it doesn’t shout it out loud like a McLaren P1 or a Ferrari LaFerrari does (its main rivals). The lines are pure and smooth, nothing distract the eyes. It can even be a convertible if you take the two roof panels off. If you’re not fully awake you could mistake it for a Boxster. Inside, it’s the same business. The cabin welcomes you in with a fully loaded infotainment system, comfortable bucket seats, great build quality and it gives a sensation that you can drive it to St. Tropez and still feel fresh to drive back on the same day… just like a big Boxster, in fact.
What is it like to drive? Does it feel like a very fast car or like something totally new? Emilien from Prestige Motor Racing demonstrated how composed, agile and warp-speed like fast this car really is. It kicks you in the backside like nothing else. The 918 is superbly engineered and hide its mass (around 1700 kg, depending on options and packages) brilliantly.
“The car is at ease on the road but can be devastatingly quick on every kind of racetracks”, says Emilien. “No cars yet can compete with it”.
This car leaves you speechless. It can drive you quietly in decent comfort, with the satnav and the air-conditioning in E-Drive mode (fully electric) as easily as a VW Golf or tear your face off at every acceleration, bend or brakes if you want it too. There are no new cars yet that are able to do those opposed things be as good as this vehicle. The 918 Spyder is simply a masterpiece.